American Civil Liberties UnionACLU.orghttps://www.aclu.org/
We Can’t End Mass Incarceration Without Ending Money Bailhttps://www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/we-cant-end-mass-incarceration-without-ending-money-bail
Wealth should never decide a person’s freedom.
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Whether or not you are in jail should not depend on your ability to pay for your freedom. Yet that’s the way our current money bail system works. It is one of the most corrupt and broken parts of our justice system.<br><br>Close to half a million people are in jail today awaiting trial, many of them incarcerated because they are too poor to afford cash bail. The time has come to abolish this system. The ACLU Campaign for Smart Justice is launching a nationwide campaign today to end this injustice of wealth-based incarceration, deploying all of our tools from our nationwide state affiliate structure to our strategic litigation, communication, and legislative advocacy to support bail reform movements and our partners in states across the country.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">The original purpose of bail was to serve as an incentive to return to court when a person is arrested, released, and their case proceeds. However, the current money bail system has little to do with this original intent. Rather it has mutated into a way to separate people who have money from those who don’t. People with money can almost always buy their way to freedom, regardless of the charges against them. Yet people without access to cash too often end up in jail simply because they cannot afford bail, or alternatively they must take out loans from bail companies that charge exorbitant fees.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Even though you are presumed innocent in the eyes of the law, if you can’t afford cash bail, you will end up in jail for weeks, months, or, in some cases, years as you wait for your day in court. This wealth-based incarceration disproportionately punishes and targets Black people and other people of color as well as people from economically disadvantaged communities. Those trapped by this system often lose their families, jobs, and homes as they are denied justice while waiting for their case to move through the system.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">They’re also more likely to be convicted of the crime they were charged with. <a href="http://www.nycja.org/lwdcms/doc-view.php?module=reports&amp;module_id=669&amp;doc_name=doc">One study</a> showed that the non-felony conviction rate jumps from 50 percent to 92 percent for those jailed pretrial. For felony cases, the <a href="https://www.nycja.org/lwdcms/doc-view.php?module=reports&amp;module_id=597&amp;doc_name=doc">rate</a> jumps from 59 percent to 85 percent. Whether you are detained before trial can very well predict whether you are eventually convicted, as people become desperate to leave jail and agree to plea deals. Prosecutors know how to work this system and take advantage of these desperate situations.</p>
<p>But prosecutors aren’t the only ones who benefit from this system. Multinational insurance corporations and for-profit bail bond companies make billions in profits, all on the backs of low-income people and disadvantaged communities. That’s because if you want to get out of jail and you cannot afford it, then you have to turn to one of these companies to secure your freedom. According to a recent <a href="https://www.aclu.org/report/selling-our-freedom-how-insurance-corporations-have-taken-over-our-bail-system">report</a> by Color of Change and the ACLU Campaign for Smart Justice, fewer than 10 companies are responsible for a significant majority of the $14 billion in bonds posted by for-profit bail each year. The industry collects around $2 billion a year in profits.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">These companies require an upfront, nonrefundable fee—usually 10 percent—to pay for your bail. Yet often times families cannot afford this fee and end up paying through installment plans with high interest rates, trapping them in years of debt. So individuals with enough money to pay their entire bail upfront generally receive all of their money back when their case is resolved, but if a for-profit bondsman bailed you out — even if you never miss a day in court and are found not guilty — you and your family are still financially beholden, many times for years paying them back.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">This is happening throughout the country. In Maryland, for example, the state’s Office of the Public Defender <a href="http://www.opd.state.md.us/Portals/0/Downloads/High%20Cost%20of%20Bail.pdf">found</a> that over a five-year period, “more than $75 million in bail bond premiums were charged in cases that were resolved without finding of any wrongdoing.” Overall, for-profit bond premiums cost families in the state more than $250 million over five years, and that does not include interest or other fees. When you take a deeper look, as we have, you’ll see that these predatory loan practices are often concentrated in the poorest communities and are disproportionately paid by Black people. We’re seeing hundreds of millions of dollars drained from our most underserved communities into the hands of the bail bond industry and multinational corporations.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">There’s a better way towards justice. Some states — like New Jersey — have already pursued important reforms that begin to overhaul the money bail system. They are putting an end to people being punished simply because they cannot afford money bail. They are changing the culture of the courts and making sure that judges make informed decisions for each individual they see and exhaust all other alternatives before ever resorting to money bail.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">And these reforms are beginning to work. Since New Jersey’s bail reform law took effect on January 1, 2017, the daily population in the state’s jails has dropped 17.2 percent and cash bail has been imposed only 33 times out of 33,400 defendants. New Jersey’s example demonstrates that we can fix this predatory system without inhibiting our justice system’s ability to fulfill its obligations. Incarceration rates are dropping where reforms have been implemented, and communities are better off for it.</p>
<p>Money shouldn’t determine someone’s freedom from incarceration. Big business must not be the gatekeeper that decides who is released from jail before trial. Profits must be removed from playing any role in deciding whether a person is free or in jail.</p>The Round-Up<a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/we-cant-end-mass-incarceration-without-ending-money-bail">66595</a>Mon, 11 Dec 2017 16:30 -0500American Civil Liberties UnionAn Arkansas Town Agrees to Criminal Justice Reform to Ensure That the Poor Are Not Jailedhttps://www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/sentencing-reform/arkansas-town-agrees-criminal-justice-reform-ensure-poor-are
The city of Sherwood agrees to stop jailing people for debts they are too poor to pay.
<p>For years, the city of Sherwood, Arkansas, home to about 30,000 people, had a practice of jailing people who could not afford to pay court costs incurred from bounced checks. Thousands of Arkansans were locked up—sometimes after bouncing checks in small amounts—when they could not pay crushing fees, fines, and other costs that compounded their debt by as much as 10 times the original amount.</p>
<p>Today, thanks to litigation brought by the ACLU, the ACLU of Arkansas, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Sherwood has agreed to stop jailing people for being poor.</p>
<p>Under this week’s settlement, the city agreed that it will not jail or issue arrest warrants for people because they can’t afford to pay their debts. Sherwood also agreed to clearly advise defendants of their rights before sentencing, ensure that defendants have access to counsel, and offer community service and other alternatives in lieu of court fines.</p>
<p>This is what criminal justice reform looks like.</p>
<p>Before this settlement, bouncing a check could have resulted in an arrest warrant, loss of driver’s license, levying of excessive fines, and even a jail sentence.</p>
<p>One defendant was arrested at least seven times, spent 25 days in jail, and was assessed $2,700 in court costs for bouncing a single $29 check. Another wrote 11 checks totaling about $200, and was arrested seven times, spent weeks in jail, and was assessed thousands of dollars in court costs, fines and fees.</p>
<p>The Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution prohibit the state from punishing someone just because they’re poor. These fundamental constitutional rights ensure that even if you are sentenced to pay a fine, you cannot then be re-arrested and sent to jail because of your inability to pay that fine.</p>
<p>Though this settlement marks a victory, Sherwood is one city. Vulnerable people in the state and across the nation are <a href="https://www.aclu.org/issues/racial-justice/race-and-criminal-justice/debtors-prisons">still being trapped</a> in a never-ending cycle of escalating debt and incarceration — with devastating human costs. In too many communities, politicians and courts have created and are still carrying out one set of rules for those who are well-off, and another more punitive set of rules for those who aren’t.</p>
<p>Other Arkansas courts should take notice of these long-overdue reforms in Sherwood.</p>
<p>As illogical as it sounds, courts routinely suspend the drivers’ licenses of those who are too poor to pay their fines and fees on time, typically with no notice or opportunity to be heard. It’s illogical because, without a drivers’ license, people lose their jobs and income – making it even harder to pay what they owe. Many Arkansans have no other means of transportation for taking their children to school or to the doctor’s office, or getting to the job that buys the groceries; suspending their drivers’ licenses channels these people toward the necessity of committing the crime of driving without a license, yet another crime for which the court could fine or jail them.</p>
<p>These policies that punish the poor have created staggering racial disparities and fueled a mass incarceration crisis that has cost billions of dollars and failed to make anyone safer.</p>
<p>Arkansas public officials should reflect on the Constitution they have sworn to uphold and the rights it guarantees to every Arkansan, and carry out their duties accordingly. The right to a fair trial, due process, and equal protection under the law are not luxuries for the privileged few. They are freedoms afforded to all of us. There has been progress in Sherwood, and the rest of the state of Arkansas should take note and follow to protect the rights of all.</p>The Round-Up<a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/sentencing-reform/arkansas-town-agrees-criminal-justice-reform-ensure-poor-are">66299</a>Tue, 14 Nov 2017 17:15 -0500American Civil Liberties UnionBehind Many ‘Mom and Pop’ Bail Bonds Shops Is a Huge Insurance Corporation Out to Profit From Miseryhttps://www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/behind-many-mom-and-pop-bail-bonds-shops-huge-insurance-corporation-out-profit
Every year, money bail boosts bail insurance corporations’ profits at the expense of millions of low-income people of color.
<p>Eleven years ago, San Diego, California, resident Melodie Henderson was arrested for assault after a minor altercation with a former coworker. Her bail was set at $50,000. This was before a judge ever laid eyes on her. </p>
<p>Although she was employed, there was just no way Melodie would ever have been able to come up with the $50,000 she needed to post bail to be released while she fought her case in court. Her other option was to pay a bail bonds company a 10% nonrefundable fee, but with a $50,000 bail amount, it would be hard for her to come up with the $5,000 on her own. Of course there was third option: to sit in jail while her case moved forward, but that wasn’t an option at all. She was in her early 20s, working and going to school part time, while also taking care of her 6-year-old sister and her grandmother, who was undergoing chemotherapy. Her bail felt like punishment before she even went to trial. </p>
<p>So it was her grandparents, who were on a fixed monthly income, who faced the decision to either go into debt to get Melodie released as her case moved forward or let her sit in jail, lose her job, and fight her case while she was in custody. </p>
<p>They decided to go through a bail bonds company to get Melodie out. The result was a financial burden no person or their family should bear: making a hefty down payment and then monthly payments to the bail bonds company — with interest. Had her and her family been wealthy and able to afford the entire $50,000 bail amount up front, things would have been much different. They would have eventually gotten all their money back (minus some fees) from the courts. That was not the case with the bail bonds company. </p>
<p>Even after her case was resolved and she completed community service and served a period of probation, her and her family’s debt to the bail bonds industry continued. Sadly, she isn’t alone. </p>
<p>As detailed in a <a href="https://www.aclu.org/report/selling-our-freedom-how-insurance-corporations-have-taken-over-our-bail-system?redirect=SellingFreedom">report</a> released today by <a href="http://www.colorofchange.org/">Color Of Change</a> and the <a href="http://www.aclu.org">American Civil Liberties Union</a>’s Campaign for Smart Justice, every year millions of people are locked up in jail nationwide before they even get their day in court — all because they cannot afford to post bail and buy their freedom. </p>
<p>Some, like Melodie, are able to pool resources together, often with the help of family members, to pay the nonrefundable 10 percent fee for-profit bail companies typically charge. This is a hardship masquerading as a tool of justice. </p>
<p>The report, <a href="https://www.aclu.org/report/selling-our-freedom-how-insurance-corporations-have-taken-over-our-bail-system?redirect=SellingFreedom">“Selling Off Our Freedom: How Insurance Corporations Have Taken Over Our Bail System,”</a> exposes insurance corporations’ hand in creating an unnecessary and largely unaccountable $2 billion bail industry that ensnares thousands of people in detention or debt – or both. Insurers, including corporations like Bail USA, Seneca Insurance, and United States Surety, collect around 10 percent of the premium bail agents charge families. </p>
<p>Like in many states, California’s money bail system – where low to moderate-income people are unable to post money bail and have to either sit in jail or pay a bail bonds company a nonrefundable fee for their freedom – prioritizes bail insurance corporations’ profits over justice. While people are trapped in jail or debt, these conglomerates reap large benefits at low risk, all the while evading oversight. </p>
<p>Their evasion is purposeful. The bail bonds industry portrays itself as small, “mom and pop” bail bonds agencies that secure release from jail for a nonrefundable fee. In reality, multinational insurance corporations dominate the industry, underwriting each bond. In fact, fewer than 10 large insurers underwrite a majority of the approximately $14 billion in bail bonds issued in the United States each year. This money bail system allows corporate insurers to operate with little risk, meaning the industry profits even when its customers do not show up for court. It is a win-win for them. It is a lose-lose for justice. </p>
<p>People like Melodie spend years trying to pay back the bail bonds company to get back on track. They are forced to put their lives on hold, let bills go unpaid, and take severe hits to their credit. Many are people already struggling to make ends meet, and many are people of color. </p>
<p>This is not a system of justice. It is a system of corporate greed that negatively impacts millions of people, especially low-income families and <a href="http://projects.pretrial.org/racialjustice/">communities of color</a>.</p>
<p>Now 32 years old, Melodie is a small business owner, mother, and caretaker of her two younger sisters. The road for her was long and difficult. Yet her story could have been much different if she hadn’t been expected to buy her freedom. She hopes people understand that California’s current money bail system doesn’t promote justice and public safety but rather injustice and harm to the people, families, and communities ensnared by it. </p>
<p>Fortunately, California lawmakers introduced The California Money Bail Reform Act of 2017 (<a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB42">AB 42</a> and <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB10">SB 10</a>), two identical bills that will truly protect the wellbeing and safety of communities. The bills will reduce the number of people locked up because they are unable to pay to get out of jail while their cases move forward. The bills will also prioritize services to help people make their court appearances and curb the state’s overreliance on the current money bail system. They build upon commonsense solutions adopted in other jurisdictions that have significantly reduced their use of commercial bail, such as Kentucky; Santa Clara, California; and Washington, D.C. </p>
<p>California needs to pass this legislation in the name of justice. And the rest of the nation should follow suit with similar state-based legislation that puts the economic security, wellbeing, and safety of our communities before bail insurance companies’ profits. We need to create a system of justice that works for <em>everyone</em>. </p>The Round-Up<a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/behind-many-mom-and-pop-bail-bonds-shops-huge-insurance-corporation-out-profit">63421</a>Thu, 11 May 2017 15:00 -0400American Civil Liberties UnionI Spent More Than 6 Years in Prison. Now I’m Deputy Director of the ACLU’s Campaign for Smart Justice.https://www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/i-spent-more-6-years-prison-now-im-deputy-director-aclus-campaign-smart-justice
The Smart Justice Campaign’s 50-state plan will be a driving force in ending mass incarceration in the U.S.
<p>In January 2000, I was released from a Pennsylvania state prison after serving six-and-a-half years. In 1994, I had pled guilty to criminal charges of robbery, kidnapping, criminal conspiracy, and violation of the Uniformed Firearms Act. In January 2017, I accepted an offer to serve as the ACLU’s deputy director for the Smart Justice Campaign.<br><br>Did you just do a double take? I know. It’s pretty unbelievable. My story, like so many others in this nation, is proof that not only can people change, but that they deserve the chance to change. </p>
<p>Since my release from prison in 2000, I have worked tirelessly to restore the lives of people who have served time in America’s prisons. But my initial advocacy efforts were more modest. They were about me. I wanted the life I was working towards prior to participating in the crime that led me to prison.<br><br>My efforts to restore my life began while serving time in prison. It was while walking and talking in a prison yard with a man recently released who returned just a few months later. That day, I made the conscious decision never to return to prison. I am still in possession of the piece of paper I wrote (the first of many notes to myself): “I will not engage in behavior that is detrimental to myself, or anyone else, no matter what the circumstances.”<br><br>At the time, I had no clue that a declaration made in a prison cell would serve as a compass for the balance of my life. The decision to become a professional advocate came later, in contrast with many of my colleagues, who decided to become full time criminal justice reform advocates while serving time in our nation’s jails and prisons.</p>
<p>My journey to a leadership position at the ACLU came out of having to develop skills and abilities needed to survive in a nation where a perpetual culture of discrimination exists to permanently punish Americans who have paid their debts to society. My desire to stay free and live the American dream propelled me into the ring as a fighter for my personal civil liberties, and eventually for others, as I discovered that I had the capacity to take a licking and keep on ticking.<br><br>For over 17 years, I have sought out ways to use my time and skills to improve the quality of life for people living in communities adversely impacted by issues related to mass incarceration. I have served in a broad and diverse range of positions, from a volunteer at a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/1MUBP/">nonviolence organization</a> to the founder and executive director of a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/redeemedpa/">nonprofit organization</a> that aimed to eliminate systemic discrimination practices targeted at people living with arrest and convictions.<br><br>Upon learning of the opportunity to join the Smart Justice team at the ACLU’s national office, I was unsure whether the organization would be interested in hiring a person living with a criminal history. Much to my surprise, under the experience and qualifications section of the job posting included the following: <em>Personal experience being incarcerated or in other ways entangled with the criminal justice system, preferred.</em><em> </em>Preferred? At that moment, my desire to join the ACLU in my current capacity increased exponentially, and I hastily set out in pursuit of an interview.</p>
<p>Today, as one of two deputy directors of the Smart Justice Campaign, I am working among our nation’s most brilliant and passionate defenders of human rights and civil liberties. Our <a href="https://www.aclu.org/feature/campaign-smart-justice">campaign’s goal</a> is to reduce the number of Americans serving time in our nation by a minimum of 50 percent. Our team — along with ACLU affiliates, criminal justice reform advocates, impacted communities, philanthropic partners, and ACLU volunteers — is collaboratively crafting and executing strategic campaigns for each of the 50 states, providing each with a unique plan of action to combat the primary drivers of incarceration.<br><br>Each day I grow increasingly confident that the Smart Justice Campaign will be remembered as a significant driving force in the toppling of mass incarceration as we know it today. I joined the ACLU because I am a fighter. And today the ACLU is home to our nation’s best fighters. If you don’t believe me, just ask President Trump. </p>The Round-Up<a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/i-spent-more-6-years-prison-now-im-deputy-director-aclus-campaign-smart-justice">63158</a>Wed, 19 Apr 2017 10:00 -0400American Civil Liberties UnionKalief Browder’s Tragic Death and the Criminal Injustice of Our Bail Systemhttps://www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/kalief-browders-tragic-death-and-criminal-injustice-our-bail-system
The cash bail system in America damages and takes lives.
<p>Over the last two weeks, Americans have revisited the tragic details of the death of 22-year-old Kalief Browder. The documentary series “Time: The Kalief Browder Story,” airs its third of six episodes tonight about Kalief, who spent three years in jail without ever being convicted of the crime with which he was charged.</p>
<p>Kalief’s story matters. It matters for his family. It matters for his community. It matters for New York. It matters for our entire nation.</p>
<p>In Kalief’s story we can clearly see a culpable and fundamentally broken criminal justice system that punishes people for being poor, and subjects individuals to inhumane treatment. Kalief was 16 years old when he arrested in 2010 for allegedly stealing a backpack. He was charged with robbery, grand larceny, and assault. Bail was set at $3,000. The family could not afford that amount, so Kalief didn’t get to go home after he was charged. Instead, he was sent to the infamous Rikers Island jail in New York City.</p>
<p>Let’s just pause on that fact: He had to go to Rikers because he couldn’t pay $3,000 in bail.</p>
<p>Kalief spent more than 1,100 days incarcerated, maintaining his innocence throughout. Prosecutors repeatedly offered plea deals, which Kalief rejected. After <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/06/09/no-bail-less-hope-the-death-of-kalief-browder#.WMgToUHAo">74 days of incarceration</a>, bail was revoked altogether. By the time he left Rikers, this boy, who had been accused of stealing a backpack, had spent almost 800 days of solitary confinement.</p>
<p>Eventually prosecutors realized they had no case and dismissed all charges. He was released on June 5, 2013. Yet the damage done to him was a new kind of prison that stayed with him. After his release, he told <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/06/before-the-law">The New Yorker</a>, “I’m not all right. I’m messed up.” On June 6, 2015, he hung himself with an air conditioner cord. He was 22 years old.</p>
<p>Kalief’s abuse at the hands of the criminal justice system is a clarion to overhaul our nation’s jail system.</p>
<p>On any given day, hundreds of thousands of Americans who haven’t been convicted of a crime rot in jail simply because they are too poor to afford bail amounts that would secure their freedom.</p>
<p>More than 3,000 jails in the United States hold more than 650,000 people on any given day. About two-thirds, <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2016.html">450,000 people</a>, are held awaiting trial. Most are in jail because they could not afford bail or a bail agent refused to post a bond. Their wealth determines whether they are incarcerated.</p>
<p>This pretrial detention jails nearly half a million people at any given time and fuels over-incarceration by inducing guilty pleas, forcing people to lose jobs and housing, subjecting them to longer sentences, and exacting physical and financial damage. The inability to afford bail ruins lives, harms whole families, and has a negative impact on entire communities.</p>
<p>The growth of jails in the U.S. is a major contributor to the national disease of mass incarceration. According to a <a href="http://archive.vera.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/incarcerations-front-door-report.pdf">report by the Vera Institute for Justice</a>, the number of annual jail admissions doubled in the past three decades to 12 million, and the average length of stay increased from 14 to 23 days. According to the report, half of the people in New York City’s jails in 2013 were held on bail of $2,500 or less. And the system reproduces the structural racism already embedded in the criminal justice system. Black Americans, who make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, account for 36 percent of the jail population. They are jailed at almost four times the rate of white Americans.</p>
<p>Yet there is hope. The ACLU and communities across the nation are fighting back, rejecting systems that require money in exchange for freedom. The state of New Jersey recently overhauled its bail system and nearly eliminated cash bail while also establishing a pretrial services agency. The reforms, which took effect in January of this year, are encouraging: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/06/nyregion/new-jersey-bail-system.html?_r=0">In 3,382 cases processed in the first four weeks of January, judges set bail only three times</a>.</p>
<p>The bail reform movement is gaining steam across America. While New Jersey’s overhaul may be the most far-reaching, Alaska, Maine, and New Mexico also made progress on bail reform last year. And throughout 2017, the ACLU will be working in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Ohio, Nebraska, Texas, Vermont, and Washington to advance reforms that would allow people to go home without bail.</p>
<p>Nothing will bring Kalief Browder back. But his tragic end is not the end of his story. We need to reform our nation’s broken criminal justice system and ensure that no one else faces the horrible tragedy Kalief did. This is how we honor him.</p>The Round-Up<a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/kalief-browders-tragic-death-and-criminal-injustice-our-bail-system">62428</a>Wed, 15 Mar 2017 14:45 -0400American Civil Liberties UnionCourt Leaders Nationwide Send Message to Debtors’ Prisons: Courts Are Not ATMs.https://www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/court-leaders-nationwide-send-message-debtors-prisons-courts-are-not-atms
Being poor shouldn’t be a crime. New guidelines direct judges to make sure it isn’t.
<p>Last week, state court leaders from across the nation took critically important action against debtors’ prisons to ensure that people are not locked up simply because they are poor.</p>
<p>Following reports of the devastating effects of debtors’ prisons across the country — including in <a href="https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/ferguson_police_department_report_1.pdf">Ferguson</a>, <a href="https://www.aclu.org/cases/thompson-v-dekalb-county">Georgia</a>, <a href="https://www.aclu.org/cases/fuentes-v-benton-county">Washington</a>, <a href="https://www.aclu.org/aclu-michigan-complaint-and-brief">Michigan</a>, <a href="https://www.aclu.org/cases/kennedy-v-city-biloxi">Mississippi</a>, and <a href="http://aclu-co.org/court-cases/wheat-ridge-v-taylor/">Colorado</a> — the top national organizations of state court leaders formed the <a href="http://www.ncsc.org/Newsroom/News-Releases/2016/Task-Force-on-Fines-Fees-and-Bail-Practices.aspx">National Task Force on Fines, Fees, and Bail Practices</a> in 2016. This task force has now issued a bench card on the <a href="http://www.ncsc.org/~/media/Images/Topics/Fines%20Fees/BenchCard_FINAL_Feb2_2017.ashx">Lawful Collection of Legal Financial Obligations</a> — a step-by-step guide for state and local judges to use to protect the rights of poor people who cannot afford to pay court fines and fees. </p>
<p>The principle of fairness enshrined in the Constitution and the way courts treat the poor are too often separate things in America. The Supreme Court ruled more than 30 years ago that people should never be locked up behind bars solely because they are unable to pay court fines and fees they cannot afford. But we have seen time and again that despite this ruling debtors’ prisons are a reality, with devastating impact on low-income people and their communities. </p>
<p>In 2014, <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/speakeasy/profit-companies-are-helping-put-people-jail-being-poor-i-should-know-i-was-one-them">Kevin Thompson</a>, an unemployed teenager, was jailed for five nights because he could not pay $838 in traffic fines and fees in the allotted 30-day period. Kevin explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I spent five days in the DeKalb County Jail where it was cold and dirty, and I didn't get enough food. I felt ashamed, scared, and sad during those five days. It hurt to be separated from my family. And even after I was released, I felt scared that police might arrest me and jail me again for no good reason. After all DeKalb County and JCS essentially jailed me for being poor.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In 2016, Qumotria Kennedy, a single mother of three living in poverty, was arrested and jailed when she could not pay $1001 in cash for unpaid traffic fines and fees. Kennedy lost her part-time job cleaning a motel and was separated from her teenage daughter. Neither Thompson nor Kennedy should have been punished because of their poverty. </p>
<p>Had the judges who handled Thompson and Kennedy’s traffic cases been trained on the task force’s bench card, they would have known that debtors’ prisons are unconstitutional. The bench card would have guided them to hold an ability-to-pay hearing and to consider readily available alternatives before punishing a person with jail for nonpayment of a fine or a fee. It also would have helped them evaluate critical factors like income relative to the federal poverty guidelines and receipt of public assistance when determining a person’s ability to pay.</p>
<p>Maureen O’Conner, the task force co-chair and chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, explained the purpose of the bench card succinctly: “In too many instances, judges are ignoring fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution, while local politicians treat the court system as an ATM for their spending priorities.” </p>
<p>The task force’s action is the latest in a growing wave of reform by federal, state, and local leaders across the country to address the illegalities and ills of debtors’ prisons.</p>
<p>In 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice issued <a href="https://www.justice.gov/crt/file/832461/download" target="_blank">a strong letter</a> calling on state chief justices and court administrators to ensure that court rules and procedures on fine and fee collection afford due process and equal protection of the law and align with sound public policy. State high courts in <a href="http://www.acluohio.org/issue-information/ohio-supreme-court-takes-steps-to-end-debtors-prison-practices">Ohio</a> and <a href="https://www.courts.wa.gov/content/manuals/Superior%20Court%20LFOs.pdf">Washington</a> had already done that by adopting bench cards to train and guide judges on fine and fee collection. The Michigan Supreme Court followed suit by amending its state court rules to enact guidelines for judges. And cities like <a href="https://www.aclu.org/cases/kennedy-v-city-biloxi">Biloxi, Mississippi</a>, adopted <a href="https://www.aclu.org/cases/kennedy-v-city-biloxi">sweeping reforms</a> as a result of litigation by the ACLU and others, including a bench card and the creation of a full-time public defender’s office to represent indigent people.</p>
<p>The tide is turning. State and local court leaders should act now. If they don’t comply with the law and the Constitution, they’ll be sued. Judges and court staff should be trained on the task force’s bench card immediately to ensure that fair and equal treatment in our justice system does not wait another day.</p>The Round-Up<a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/court-leaders-nationwide-send-message-debtors-prisons-courts-are-not-atms">61471</a>Mon, 06 Feb 2017 17:15 -0500American Civil Liberties UnionJames Burns Chose to Go Back Into Solitary Confinement for 30 Days, and He Livestreamed His Experience to Show the World Its Crueltyhttps://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/james-burns-chose-go-back-solitary-confinement-30-days-and-he-livestreamed
James Burns suffered through solitary confinement as a young man. He went back between the walls to push for its abolition.
<p>For the last 30 days, I was worried about James Burns.</p>
<p>He was once again in solitary confinement, only this time it was of his own accord and <a href="http://solitary.vice.com/">live-streaming on VICE</a>. As a kid and a young man, Burns repeatedly was put in solitary, and it hurt him badly. Now a journalist, Burns volunteered to go back between those four lonely walls to raise awareness and push for an end to solitary confinement in America.</p>
<p>Today, Burns gets out. Today the isolation ends. Today he goes home. </p>
<p>I know he made the decision himself to go back in for the greater good. Still, I’m worried about the impact on that awful place — and how his latest stint there will affect him for the rest of his life. And Burns isn’t the only one suffering from the impact of solitary confinement. In fact, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/barack-obama-why-we-must-rethink-solitary-confinement/2016/01/25/29a361f2-c384-11e5-8965-0607e0e265ce_story.html?tid=a_inl">as many as 100,000 people</a> are in solitary on any given day in the United States. Solitary confinement deprives people of virtually all human interaction, and those kept in solitary <a href="http://www.ncchc.org/solitary-confinement">often sustain</a> permanent psychological damage.</p>
<p>This is why I feared for Burns every time <a href="http://solitary.vice.com/">I saw him</a> in that tiny, concrete cell all alone, even if — his time around — it was his choice.</p>
<p>The cell was about the size of a parking spot with an iron bunk, toilet, and sink. There was a metal door with a small viewing window so the officers could look in to make sure he was still alive. Other than that, there was nothing else but the four concrete walls. </p>
<p>I saw James Burns in that cell pacing back and forth, back and forth. There’s nothing else to do when you’re trapped in a box all day. I bet he counted how many steps it takes to cross the cell backwards and forwards. I bet he knew every crack in the wall, every chip in the paint. Sometimes it must have felt like the walls were closing in on him. Sometimes he must have been so desperate just to see and talk to another human being that he wanted to cry or scream.</p>
<p>Burns could’ve left solitary at any moment, but he didn’t. Instead he persevered because he wants me thinking about solitary confinement. He wants you thinking about solitary confinement. He knows the other men around him are trapped. He heard, and will probably always hear, their screams — their cries full of desperation, rage, and despair.</p>
<p>He wants us to hear them too. </p>
<p>I admire Burns’ bravery and his resolve, but I know his project didn’t come without a price. I’ve seen what solitary confinement does to people: As an ACLU attorney, I <a href="https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/assets/2014.10.30.updated_npp_docket_8-14.pdf">sue</a> the government for violating the Constitution by subjecting people in prison to “cruel and unusual punishment.” (That’s the phrase the Founding Fathers used in the 18th century; now we’d probably just say “torture.”) In my work, I’ve talked to hundreds of men, women, and kids in solitary confinement. I’ve <a href="https://www.aclu.org/cases/parsons-v-ryan">sued</a> states for harming people in solitary confinement. And I’ve worked for years to <a href="https://www.aclu.org/feature/we-can-stop-solitary?redirect=stopsolitary">abolish the practice</a> and make prisons more humane for all. </p>
<p>Still, I couldn’t do what James did — I’m too afraid. Almost nobody survives solitary confinement undamaged, and too many don’t survive at all.</p>
<p>I think <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalief_Browder">of Kalief Browder</a>, arrested for allegedly stealing a backpack at 16 and put into solitary for two years of his three years inside prison before being released to the community. The pain and suffering of those years in jail overwhelmed him, and he took his own life.</p>
<p>I think of my client <a href="http://solitarywatch.com/2016/09/03/arizona-prison-received-warnings-weeks-before-teenagers-suicide-in-solitary-confinement-cell/">Mariam</a><u>,</u> who was also placed in solitary as a kid. We found her in an isolation cell during a prison inspection in Arizona, a confused and scared 17-year-old. We <a href="http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/teen-inmate-commits-suicide-after-az-department-of-corrections-was-warned-of-her-mental-health-problems-8533867">tried to get her out immediately</a>, to get her out before it was too late — she seemed to be unraveling in isolation — but the state refused. Instead, they sent her to an adult supermax prison. The pain and desperation she must have felt in that small, lonely cell haunts me. She was dead within weeks. </p>
<p>Solitary confinement costs lives. James knows that, and a growing number of Americans are realizing it, too.</p>
<p>There is a movement across the country to <a href="https://www.aclu.org/feature/we-can-stop-solitary?redirect=stopsolitary">Stop Solitary</a> that is being led by civil rights organizations, the faith community, solitary survivors and their families, as well as political leaders and members of the corrections profession. In recent years, states have <a href="https://www.aclu.org/other/stop-solitary-resources-advocates-updated-october-2016?redirect=other/stop-solitary-resources-advocates-updated-november-2015">passed laws</a> regulating the practice, and many others have advanced the reform process by <a href="http://www.safealternativestosegregation.org/">reducing the numbers of people</a> they place in solitary confinement. Both President Obama and even a <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/justice-kennedy-says-make-my-day-solitary">justice of the Supreme Court</a> have publicly condemned the practice — and in the case of <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/obama-puts-solitary-confinement-notice">Obama</a>, taken affirmative steps to push reform. </p>
<p>Change is happening — change that will save lives. But right now James Burns is reminding me and you that there is much more work to be done. He has been living in solitary, forgoing holiday parties and celebrations most of us take for granted, to remind the public that it is our job, our responsibility to Stop Solitary. </p>
<p>Defeating solitary will take us all working together. We can learn from James Burns’ experiences and example, and then add our voices to his.</p>The Round-Up<a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/james-burns-chose-go-back-solitary-confinement-30-days-and-he-livestreamed">61159</a>Tue, 10 Jan 2017 14:15 -0500American Civil Liberties UnionIn Stunning Reversal, Law Enforcement, Military, and Security Advisors Urge Homeland Security to Shift Away from Private Prisonshttps://www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/mass-incarceration/stunning-reversal-law-enforcement-military-and-security
With people’s lives hanging in the balance, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson should move quickly to reduce for-profit detention.
<p>In a surprise development, the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC), an expert panel of law enforcement, national security, military, and other experts who advise the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security voted on Thursday to recommend that the agency shift away from using private prisons to detain immigrants.</p>
<p>Under public pressure, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson in August had convened a special subcommittee of the HSAC to evaluate whether the agency should continue to use for-profit prisons.</p>
<p>The subcommittee’s <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/DHS%20HSAC%20PIDF%20Final%20Report.pdf">report</a>, released Thursday, presented much evidence showing that private prisons are generally inferior, in both accountability and conditions of confinement, to federally run facilities. “Much could be said for a fully government-owned and government-operated detention model, if one were starting a new detention system from scratch,” the report said.</p>
<p>Oddly, however, the subcommittee’s report failed to draw the logical conclusion from the evidence — to recommend shifting away from private prisons — and most subcommittee members seemed resigned to their continued use. “Fiscal considerations, combined with the need for realistic capacity to handle sudden increases in detention, indicate that DHS’s use of private for-profit detention will continue,” the majority wrote. One dissenting member argued that DHS should make “a measured but deliberate shift away from the private prison model.”</p>
<p>On Thursday, when the subcommittee presented its report to the full 24-member council for a vote, observers expected it to be approved. Instead, however, the HSAC voted, by a 17-to-5 majority, to associate itself with the dissent and to recommend that DHS shift away from the private prison model.</p>
<p>Secretary Johnson was present for the entire HSAC meeting and witnessed the contentious debate that preceded the vote. The final vote breakdown makes it undeniably clear that three-quarters of the agency’s non-partisan expert council — which includes former high-level DHS officials, police chiefs, retired generals, and executives at defense contractors like Booz Allen Hamilton and Lockheed Martin — think it is unacceptable for the current immigration detention system to continue as is. This expert council believes that DHS should shift away from using private prisons.</p>
<p>In light of the HSAC recommendations, Secretary Johnson can and should take the following measures before he leaves office in January:</p>
<p>First, DHS should immediately stop using the for-profit detention facilities with the most notorious records of sexual abuse, detainee deaths, and denial of medical care. These facilities include the South Texas Detention Complex, Otay Mesa Detention Facility in San Diego, Eloy Detention Facility in Arizona, and Cibola County Correctional Center in New Mexico. Advocates have pressed DHS to cancel its contracts at the first four for years because of their long, grisly records of abuse and neglect. And DHS never should have begun the <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/ice-plans-to-reopen-the-very-same-private-prison-the-feds-just-closed/">Cibola County contract</a> in the first place — the agency entered into this contract just two months ago, in the middle of the HSAC review, shortly after the Justice Department shut Cibola down after a horrifying pattern of deaths and persistent medical neglect.</p>
<p>Second, DHS should immediately break ties with the for-profit family detention facilities in the Texas cities of Dilley and Karnes that <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/i-know-american-internment-camp-when-i-see-one">lock up Central American children and mothers</a> fleeing persecution.</p>
<p>Finally, in order to facilitate a broader shift away from private prisons, DHS should expand community-based alternatives to detention, provide bond hearings to detainees locked up for six months, halt the detention of asylum seekers, and stop imposing exorbitant and unaffordable bonds. These detention reforms could <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/homeland-security-must-stop-using-private-prisons-immigration-detention-heres-how">reduce the detainee population</a> by tens of thousands of people and save hundreds of millions of dollars that would no longer go into the coffers of private prison companies.</p>
<p>The ACLU <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/homeland-security-must-stop-using-private-prisons-immigration-detention-heres-how">recommended</a> these solutions in our policy paper, “Shutting Down the Profiteers: Why and How the Department of Homeland Security Should Stop Using Private Prisons,” which we submitted to the committee and made public in early October. The paper explained how more immigrants are needlessly getting locked up than ever before, including asylum seekers, families, people too poor to afford exorbitant bond amounts, and people held for months or years without bond hearings. In just the past year, the numbers of detainees has shot up to a daily average of 45,000, from an average of fewer than 30,000 in 2015, and about 73 percent of immigration detainees are now being held in privately run facilities.</p>
<p>Now that Secretary Johnson has received the recommendations of his full council, he should move swiftly to enact reforms that reduce his agency’s dependence on private prisons. Too many people are being handed over to the custody of prison profiteers for no good reason — and Johnson must act now.</p>The Round-Up<a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/mass-incarceration/stunning-reversal-law-enforcement-military-and-security">60374</a>Fri, 02 Dec 2016 14:00 -0500American Civil Liberties UnionMy Son Has Been In Prison For 30 Years. Parole Reform Could Bring Him Home.https://www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/my-son-has-been-prison-30-years-parole-reform-could-bring-him-home
Over three decades in prison my son has become a new man. If parole isn’t for him, then parole has to change.
<p>My son Aron Knall has served 30 years of a 40- to 60-year sentence in Michigan. He’s in prison because he committed a dreadful crime when he was 15 years old. He murdered a man.</p>
<p>When I think about what he did and the time he’s spent in prison because of it, it makes me feel like I failed him as a mother. He tells me not to feel that way. He says he committed the crime, and now he’s doing his time. He was 16 when he went to prison. His time behind bars has stretched into decades, and it’s consuming his entire life.</p>
<p>Despite his decades in prison and good behavior, he’s not yet eligible for parole under our current system. And I worry that when he is eligible, they’ll just deny him. Aron’s served so much time and changed so much.</p>
<p>If parole isn’t for him, then parole has to change.</p>
<p><a class="more" href="https://www.aclu.org/feature/false-hope-how-parole-systems-fail-youth-serving-extreme-sentences" target="_blank">Read the Report on Parole: False Hope</a></p>
<p>When Aron was growing up, Saturday was little league football day. We were at the games from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and it was always an exciting day. Aron was the quarterback and played his position well. His team made the championship playoffs several times. He says his sister taught him how to throw a football . Looking back over Aron's childhood, he was full of humor, always teasing his siblings. They were close.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Aron didn’t have that closeness with his father. He deeply wanted to be part of his father's life, but his father was absent. He felt deep rejection when he couldn’t connect with his father.</p>
<p>In his attempts to gain attention afterward, I saw his character change. Aron went from a B-student to one who skipped class entirely. He started hanging with the rough crowd. He would run away from home when he felt like it. I started to ask for help with Aron from the authorities only to be told over and over again, "Nothing can be done unless a crime is committed."</p>
<p>Aron eventually committed that crime, and now something else can’t be done: We can’t bring him home.</p>
<p>Every member of our family has struggled with the pain of his being away. We each dealt with it in our own way. After graduating from college, his sister married and relocated out of state. It took her almost a decade to forgive Aron. His oldest brother also relocated with his family, but due to ill health now cannot visit Aron. His youngest brother was only nine at the time and could not comprehend what was occurring. As he grew older, Aron and he had what you may call a man-to-man talk about why Aron had to go to prison. Since then they’ve reconnected as brothers.</p>
<p>During his three decades behind bars, Aron has done so much to make me proud. We’ve talked about how we all feel his victim’s pain as well as our own. He’s shown so much remorse, so much understanding, and so much maturity. It’s like <a href="http://www.biblehub.com/kjv/2_corinthians/5-17.htm">they say in the Bible</a>, “old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” </p>
<p>Aron decided to take steps to become new, to better himself. He enrolled in GED courses and got his degree. I recall the prison cap and gown ceremony when he walked in, proudly took his seat and waited for his name to be called. My heart jumped for joy.</p>
<p>Since then, Aron has gotten certificates of completion from Wayne County Community College, Grand Valley State University Inside-Out Prison Exchange, National Center for Construction Education, and Plans and Goals for the Future. The most rewarding event for him was being chosen as a youth facilitator for younger prisoners. Aron grew up in prison, and he wanted to help other kids who had to go through the same thing. Kids who had to grow up separated from their families, in a strange and sometimes dangerous place. He wanted to open their minds, and their hearts. </p>
<p>During the decades my son has been in prison, I’ve learned that even though people say parole is possible, the system is set up so that he can’t even get a fair chance at being released. Parole boards seem to be content to let anyone who’s in prison just stay there. Even the prison officials who do see what he has done and how much he has changed can’t do much to help him when it comes to getting a a chance at release through parole. In our country, the parole process is hidden; it’s unfair; and it needs to change. And not just for my son, but for the thousands of other people living behind bars who have stories like his.</p>
<p>Let’s make second chances real for prisoners who have served lengthy sentences for crimes they committed when they were young. People applying for parole should have their entire history reviewed before parole decisions are made. It doesn’t help anyone to just slam the book on their lives. I don’t want the book slammed on Aron’s life. He’s become a man who deserves to have that book opened.</p>
<p>Each year I think I’m all cried out. But at times when I leave from visiting Aron, I still shed some tears. I cry, but I still have hope. I hope that one day driving to prison to visit my son will not be part of my life. I hope one day I’ll be driving there to finally bring him home. </p>The Round-Up<a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/my-son-has-been-prison-30-years-parole-reform-could-bring-him-home">59667</a>Tue, 29 Nov 2016 10:00 -0500American Civil Liberties UnionIt’s Time to Decriminalize Personal Drug Use and Possession. Basic Rights and Public Health Demand It.https://www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/its-time-decriminalize-personal-drug-use-and-possession-basic-rights-and-public
When it comes to personal drug possession, the scales of justice are out of balance and need recalibration now.
<p>Police arrest more people for drug possession than any other crime in America. Every 25 seconds someone is arrested for possessing drugs for their own use, amounting to 1.25 million arrests per year. These numbers tell a tale of ruined lives, destroyed families, and communities suffering under a suffocating police presence.</p>
<p>For the past year I have been investigating how the law enforcement approach to personal drug use has failed. The resulting report, “<a href="https://www.aclu.org/report/every-25-seconds-human-toll-criminalizing-drug-use-united-states">Every 25 Seconds: The Human Toll of Criminalizing Drug Use in the United States</a>,” calls on state legislatures and Congress to decriminalize personal drug use and possession. It comes at a time when the country is recognizing that the so-called “war on drugs” hasn’t stopped drug dependence and that we desperately need to address the problems of mass incarceration, race, policing, and drug policy.</p>
<p>For personal drug use, it is time to replace our criminal justice model with a public health one instead.</p>
<p>The consequences of arresting, prosecuting, and incarcerating people for personal drug use are devastating. I met people who were prosecuted for tiny amounts of drugs, in one case an amount so small that the laboratory could not even weigh it and simply called it “trace.” That man was sentenced to 15 years in Texas.</p>
<p>On any given day, nearly 140,000 people are behind bars for drug possession, while tens of thousands more are cycling through jails and prisons or struggling to make ends meet on probation or parole. Still others are serving sentences for other offenses that have been lengthened because of a prior conviction for drug possession. A conviction for drug possession can keep people from accessing welfare assistance and even the voting booth. It can also subject them to stigma and discrimination by potential landlords, employers, and peers.</p>
<p>I met a woman I’ll call “Nicole” in the Harris County Jail in Texas. Nicole was detained pretrial for months on felony drug possession charges for residue inside paraphernalia. While she was in jail, her newborn learned to sit up on her own. When the baby visited jail, she couldn’t feel her mother’s touch because there was glass between them.</p>
<p>Nicole ultimately pled guilty to possession of 0.01 grams of heroin. She would return to her children later that year, but as a “felon” and “drug offender.” She would have to drop out of school because she no longer qualified for financial aid. She would no longer be able to have a lease in her name and would have trouble finding a job. And she would no longer qualify for the food stamps she had relied on to feed her family.</p>
<p>Forty-five years after the “war on drugs” was declared, rates of drug use haven’t significantly declined, and criminalization hasn’t stopped drug dependence. In fact, criminalization has driven drug use underground, making it harder for people who use drugs to access the help they sometimes really want and need. The “war on drugs” has caused enormous harm to individuals and families — harm that often outstrips the harm of drug use itself. And it has made communities less safe by deeply corroding the relationship between police and communities of color and focusing precious law enforcement resources on nonviolent drug use instead of violent crimes, less than half of which result in an arrest.</p>
<p>Our research also reiterates that enforcement of U.S. drug laws and policy discriminates against communities of color. Although Black and white people use drugs at equivalent rates, a Black person is 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug possession. In many states that ratio is significantly higher. In Manhattan, a Black person is 11 times more likely to be arrested for drug possession than a white person.</p>
<p>As Lisa Ladd told me in New Orleans, the scales of justice are out of balance. Lisa’s son, Corey Ladd, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for possessing half an ounce of marijuana. His prior convictions were also for drug possession, and so under Louisiana law he was treated as a “habitual offender” because of habitual drug use.</p>
<p>Corey’s only child, Charlee, was born while he was incarcerated; he held her in his arms for the first time in Angola prison. Charlee is four now and thinks she visits her father at work. Corey told me, “She asks when I’m going to get off work and come see her.” Charlee could be a teenager by the time her father comes home.</p>
<p>It is time for state legislatures and Congress to decriminalize personal drug use and possession. Decriminalization needs to be paired with a stronger investment in public health, emphasizing evidence-based prevention; education around the risks of drug use and dependence; and voluntary, affordable treatment and other social services in the community. Decriminalizing personal drug use and possession will improve countless lives.</p>
<p>It’s the moral responsibility of our government to enact this change for the health and liberty of the nation.</p>
<p><a class="more" href="https://www.aclu.org/report/every-25-seconds-human-toll-criminalizing-drug-use-united-states" target="_blank">Read the full report</a></p>The Round-Up<a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/its-time-decriminalize-personal-drug-use-and-possession-basic-rights-and-public">58888</a>Fri, 14 Oct 2016 16:30 -0400American Civil Liberties Union